The interaction of ink printed by thermal ink-jet printing and a printed substrate preferably exhibits both short term and long term stability. Ink-jet receiving layers, e.g., plain paper or a coating on coated media, need to absorb the printed ink vehicle to control the spread of color drops and prevent cooling or coalescence of the ink. In addition, the surface of the printed media need to prevent excess horizontal migration of an ink spot over the surface. Long term durability includes smearfastness, smudgefastness, waterfastness, and lightfastness. Smearfastness and a smudgefastness are measures of a printed ink's resistance to physico-chemical and physical abrasion, respectively. Waterfastness is a measure of the insolubility of the ink after printing. For example, the printed media should prevent migration of the ink after drying of an image upon exposure to moisture, for example, perspiration, rain or spilled drops of water. Lightfastness is a measure of the capacity of the printed media to retain images thereon in a stable fashion without substantial fading, blurring, distortion, and the like over time in the presence of natural or made-made light.